HWP vehicle 211 with the personalised memorial number plates for Glenn Edward McEnallay.

About 5.30pm on 27 March, 2002 the constable was driving an unmarked Highway Patrol vehicle when he began to follow a stolen vehicle. In Denison Street, Hillsdale the vehicle sped off and Constable McEnalley informed VKG of the pursuit. The stolen vehicle turned into Grace Campbell Crescent and stopped. As the police vehicle came to a halt near the stolen vehicle four offenders alighted from it and fired a number of shots at the constable from a distance of about three metres. Constable McEnalley was hit in the right side of the head and right shoulder. Other police arrived at the scene and two offenders were arrested. Constable McEnalley died of his wounds on 3 April, 2002. He was posthumously awarded the Commissioner’s Valour Award.

The constable was born in 1976 and joined the New South Wales Police Force on 14 November, 1997. At the time of his death was attached to the City East Highway Patrol.

Motekiai Taufahema, 35, is serving 11 years jail after being found guilty of Senior Constable McKennally’s manslaughter.

His bid for freedom was today rejected by the State Parole Authority.

He was one of four men convicted for the shooting murder of Constable McEnallay ten years ago.

The State Parole Authority said today they believed Taufahema has not addressed his offending behaviour and his release is not supported by the Serious Offenders Review Council (SORC).

His seven year non-parole period ended last month.

“The offender needs to be reduced in classification before progress and judgment … It is not appropriate for SPA to consider the offender for release on parole.”

Commissioner Ron Woodham opposed Taufahema’s release, saying it was not in the public interest and he had not addressed his offending behaviour.

Taufahema, found not guilty of the murder of Senior Constable McEnallay but guilty of manslaughter, was sentenced to 11 years prison.

Motekiai’s brother, John, also found not guilty of the murder of Senior Constable McEnallay but guilty of manslaughter, was last month refused parole and will not be eligible again until 2014. His full sentence is also 11 years with a non-parole period of seven years.

The Authority last month also refused parole for co-offender Meli Lagi at a private meeting. He will not be eligible for parole again until next year.

Lagi, 32, who was found not guilty of the murder of Senior Constable McEnallay but guilty of firearms offences, was sentenced to almost 13 years prison with a non-parole period of almost nine years, which expired on 2 April 2011.

The fourth co-offender, 32-year-old Sione Penisini, is serving a total sentence of 36 years and won’t be eligible for parole until 2029.

ONE of the men jailed for manslaughter over the death of Senior Constable Glenn McEnallay has escaped deportation to Tonga even though he has spent more than half of his 21 years in Australia in prison.

The best interests of Motekiai Taufahema’s seven-year-old daughter, born after he was jailed, tipped the balance in his favour when he appealed against the cancellation of his visa. But his childless brother, Sione, 31, also convicted of McEnallay‘s manslaughter, will be sent back to the country he left aged nine.

A victims’ group says the decisions perversely reward criminals who become parents, while refugee advocates say they show the unfairness of the Migration Act’s ”character test”.

Although Motekiai Taufahema, 33, had spent 12 of 21 years here behind bars, the deputy president of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal, Robin Handley, found his daughter ”loves her father and misses him” and would be devastated if he were deported.

Combined with evidence of his rehabilitation, including a non-violent response to being stabbed 10 times by a fellow prisoner, it earned him ”one last chance”.

Mr Handley rejected Sione Taufahema’s appeal on the same day, saying the high risk of him re-offending outweighed other factors. Noting that he has spent almost 10 of his 21 years here in prison, Mr Handley accepted the Federal Government’s argument that the community would expect to be protected against his violent criminal behaviour.

Asked about Sione Taufahema’s imminent arrival, a Tongan Government spokesman said in an email, ”No comment.”

The Taufahema brothers were both on parole for a brutal bashing when stopped with four stolen guns in Hillsdale in 2002. Their accomplice, Sione Penisini, shot McEnallay four times.

Both brothers were sentenced to 11 years jail after pleading guilty to manslaughter – a result McEnallay‘s father, Bob, called a ”bloody disgrace”.

Sione Taufahema‘s deportation adds to a turbulent few years for the Taufahema family. Two of his siblings, Honora and Filisione, are also in jail. Another, 18-year-old Tavita, was shot dead by police in September during an armed hold-up at the Canley Heights Hotel. Last year 16-year-old Chris Emmerson was shot dead by a visitor at the family’s Yennora home.

The father, Maunaloa Taufahema, said he was happy for Motekiai’s daughter but disappointed for Sione, whom he considered Australian, not Tongan.

”He has spent a lot of his life in Australia, and to me his behaviour was based on the Australian environment,” he said.

Both brothers have spent only a week or two in Tonga since they left as children and their close families have since moved to Australia and New Zealand.

Robyn Cotterell-Jones, from the Victims of Crime Assistance League, said both brothers should be deported as a deterrent. ”I imagine victims would feel it’s wrong that if you’re arrested for murder but you get somebody pregnant you will be able to stay here rather than be deported.”

Dr Michael Grewcock, an expert on the character test from the University of NSW, said it seemed bizarre to deport one brother and not another: ”There’s just a general lack of consistency, which is built into the process.”

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[…] struck by a motor vehicle whilst deploying road spikes to stop a stolen car on 14 January 2001; and Constable Glenn McEnallay, shot by an offender at Matraville following a pursuit on 3 Apr 2002. Honourable members should be […]